Another week of viewer decline for AEW with Darby Allin as champ

I’m the heel here, again, for telling you that Week 3 of the Darby Allin-as-AEW champ era saw yet another decline in the ratings for “Dynamite.”

The May 6 show, headlined by an Allin title defense, against TNT champ Kevin Knight, averaged 590,000 viewers, down 1 percent from last week’s average of 596,000, down 4.4 percent from the 617,000 average for the April 22 show, and down 22.9 percent from the 2026 ratings high of 765,000, which was recorded for the March 25 episode.

People aren’t buying the 170-pound skateboarder as a pro wrestling world champ.

The AEW stans keep trying to pin the numbers on the NBA and NHL playoffs, but, but, but.

NXT, the developmental promotion in the WWE universe, averaged 641,000 viewers this week for its May 5 show, up 18 percent from last week – and NXT was also up against the NBA and NHL playoffs, and, presumably, the new all-night gas station that just opened down the street.

I haven’t watched NXT since 2019, but, just looked up who their champ is, and it’s an impressive-looking (from the photos) guy named Tony D’Angelo, who is listed at 6’0”, 240, and, no, he’s not a skateboarder.